Nograles on Sunday called preposterous the supposed midnight contract entered into by the Metro Rail Transit (MRT)-3 maintenance service provider Busan Universal Rail Inc. (BURI) wherein six janitors will receive a monthly pay of P83,566.

"Their janitors should be a lot richer than most bank managers and government officials with a total of P18.050 million allotted for only six personnel," commented Nograles.

In comparison, a bank manager earns from P40,000 to P60,000 per month while government officials with Salary Grades 26 equivalent to Director II receive less than P83,000 per month.

He said the janitors were merely tasked to clean the interior of the 43 MRT 3 Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) in the mainline for a period of three years.

According to Nograles, this budget allocated for janitorial service is preposterous and utterly scandalous considering the fact the scope of work for this particular item only cover the LRVs and not the entire MRT 3 facility.

"The transportation and MRT 3 officials who allowed this kind of travesty and their BURI cohorts are either absolute dimwits or are remorseless criminal masterminds," the party-list solon said.

Nograles said that BURI contract was obviously rushed without regard to national interest and public welfare by the previous Aquino administration through the now defunct Department of Transportation and Communications (DoTC).

"The DOTC entered into this BURI maintenance service contract and Dalian Locomotive supply contracts with so much haste to the point of disregarding national interest and public welfare. Now we are paying for the previous administration’s sins. This should stop now. No more payments until the procurement laws are followed correctly," he added.